All about making homemade ciders and wines

How to make a homemade apple grinder

I’ve posted before about a friend that builds homemade cider presses for around $700 a piece. They are built very well and have automated grinders, so there is no flywheel or crank to crush that apples or fruit manually. The most impressive piece of the cider press to me was his fruit grinder. Unlike the Jaffrey Apple Grinder or WestonFruit Grinder, his fruit grinder is made completely of metal. It just looks like it’s going to devour apples and other hard fruits. And it does. Below is a great picture of his homemade apple grinder for everyone else out there looking to make an apple grinder themselves.

Homemade Apple Grinders

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Most of the grinders and presses shown on the internet and within books and articles about cider making reflect a design and technology from the 18th and 19th centuries. They definitely work and produce cider.

My own experience led me to build a grinder based upon a new, one HP stainless steel disposal unit mounted under a small stainless steel sink that functions as a hopper to feed the disposal unit. Because the unit grinds fairly fine, I core the apples first, to insure that the bitter seeds are not ground into the “Pommy”.

I did start with a ratchet-style press, but was unhappy with its performance. I could ring out significant amounts of cider after the press reached its pressing limits and the nylon bags began to split. So, after reading the experiences of others building their own cider milling equipment, I built a press based on a 12 ton bottle jack. I purchased heavy pressing cloths from a supplier back East and made my racks from half inch thick plastic cutting boards that sit in a 1/2 x 6 x 18 inch oak basin. I now estimate that I have increased my cider juice yield by 15-20%. See photos of my equipment at:http://www.flickr.com/photos/31423823@N08/

I would like to hear from other home cider makers about their equipment and blends for sweet and hard cider.

Here is additional information concerning my apple grinder described in my first posting above. After researching grinding methods used by home cider makers, I chose to use a new stainless steel garbage disposal unit. From the photos I posted on flickr (the actual URL is provided on my earlier posting above), you can see my grinder mounted on a wooden cart. It is comprised of a stainless steel kitchen sink with a 1HP Insinkerator brand disposal unit mounted underneath. In operating this grinder, we first core each apple after washing. Because the apple seeds tend to be bitter (and the grinder would break the seeds into small pieces liberating that bitterness into the cider), we use a common kitchen tool that both cores and slices each apple with a downward thrust through the apple (see flickr photo “Coring the Apples” where two of these coring tools are shown on the table with the bowls of cored apples). The sink serves as a hopper from which to slowly feed apple slices into the running disposal unit below (be extremely careful not to put your fingers anywhere near this running unit,….I use a long handled wooden kitchen spoon to push apple slices into the mouth of the disposal unit). Occasionally the unit clogs and I found that pouring about a cup of previously pressed cider into the mouth of the operating unit will clear the clog. Finally, such disposal units are not designed for prolonged operations (they will overheat and the automatic shut off will engage). To remedy that, I stop grinding after about every 40 minutes and shut off the unit for about 12-15 minutes allowing it to cool down. I would be happy to answer any questions that you may have, email me at; cal1advise@aol.com

Recently, I attended a cider tasting at the BottleHouse pub in Seattle. I was pleasantly surprised by the number of commercial cider makers taking aobut, or actually producing mixed ciders (mixing another fruit juice/cider with apple cider). It motivated me to spend a day picking, pitting and using my cider grinder and press on a mix of sweet and tart cherries. Now I have a 50% apple cider, 50% cherry cider mix fermenting with the SN9 Yeast Strain from Vintner’s Harvest. And it looks good so far! 🙂

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